One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant lemon grass is to look at the USDA zone info for Utica.

Planting Calendar for Lemon grass

Frost tolerance for lemon grass:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant lemon grass a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant lemon grass in Utica is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lemon grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lemon grass may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your lemon grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Utica the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Utica may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Utica last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your lemon grass if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Utica

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Utica

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Utica.